FREEHOLD, NJ – When Phil Murphy needs a right-hand man, Vin Gopal has been there for him since being elected as a Democrat to represent New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District. This year, like no previous year, Gopal is fighting hard to keep his seat despite the wave of red surrounding him at the Jersey Shore.
He has been blitz advertising on social media, YouTube, and other tech platforms to reach an audience that could come out and support him in a year where the tide is turning for Democrats.
His close relationship and rubber stamp approval of Governor Phil Murphy’s agenda isn’t helping, despite the onslaught of ads trying to portray Gopal as an ‘ordinary Joe’.
His Republican opponent, Steve Dnistrian, says Gopal’s ‘one of the guys’ advertising is trying to hide the Murphy Democrat’s part in New Jersey being the highest taxed state in the nation with the worst business climate.
Gopal has also supported Governor Phil Murphy’s radical offshore wind energy project that collapsed into the sea last week. Instead of owning up to the mistake, Gopal blamed the offshore wind energy company Orsted, accusing them of bad business practices.
In the past 12 months, Gopal has tried to put space between himself and the governor, but Dnistrian said Gopal has been one of the governor’s most reliable enablers since he took office.
According to Dnistrian, Gopal’s hands are dirty when it comes to a bold crime wave at the Jersey Shore involving North Jersey car theft rings targeting residents there and the slashing of over $75 million in state aid to Monmouth County Schools. Gopal also supports the Attorney General’s Law Against Discrimination, which is the enforcement power behind the law that keeps parents in the dark on gender decisions of children in public schools.
“Sex and gender education curriculum is now mandated in school for children as young as 5 years old, due to a law originally co-sponsored by Gopal,” Dnistrian noted. “As Chair of the Senate Education Committee, Gopal stood by as the state recently directed school districts to permit young boys into girls’ sports and girl’s bathrooms, and vice versa, and directed gender pronouns, like “he” and “she,” be removed from school systems.”
Earlier this year, Gopal refused to support a “Parents’ Bill of Rights” designed to protect the rights of families in schools and ensure parents always have a say in the health and well-being of their children, according to Gopal’s Republican challenger.
Gopal was also the chairman of the Senate Military and Veterans Affairs Committee when Phil Murphy decided to force nursing homes and state facilities to take in COVID-19-infected patients. That decision led to the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands of elderly New Jerseyans.
“The veterans who died in these nursing homes served our country in wars, conflicts and duty around the world. And yet, they were killed right here at home – not in battle with a foreign enemy, but something much worse,” Dnistrian said. “They died or were placed in harm’s way because of politicians unable to lead, and cowards unwilling to accept responsibility. Is there any greater disrespect that this state can demonstrate to the families of those who died?”